Overview
In the contact center, workforce management (WFM) is the art of effectively forecasting staffing needs, scheduling accordingly, and then managing change. As smart as managers and their WFM technology are, they can pretty much count on encountering unplanned changes after the schedule is released. Intraday variances due to agents calling in sick, queues blowing up, volume being lower than forecasted, and the like can impact service levels, productivity and cost-effectiveness. Overstaffing eats away at earnings with higher average idle times and operational costs, while understaffing increases employee overtime and negatively impacts CSAT scores – and when CSAT scores tumble, customer churn increases.
